Alize Cornet’s strong response in the final set allowed her to get into the second round for a third time. The world number 41 dispatched seventh seeded Elena Vesnina 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) on Show Court 1 at the Brisbane International Sunday.
The two played their seventh match since meeting back in 2008. The soon to be 27-year-old Frenchwoman led the Russian 4-2 in their series with one another. Cornet finished 2016 with a semifinals loss at Limoges to Ekaterina Alexandrova in three sets. Despite coming so close to a tournament win to close out the season, she assured herself to start 2017 strong with a third appearance hoping to be a charm.
She and Vesnina got into a neck and neck race to start the set. The Russian opened service that was followed by Cornet’s success on serve. It went on through six games until the seventh where Vesnina’s game increased in success. She went on to take the next three with struggles coming from her opponents second service. By the time she won the set 6-3, Cornet had only landed 2 of 12 on the second serve and 4 of 19 on the return. The heat also played a role in her breakdown of the first hoping to regroup in the second.
It didn’t look to go that way early on as Vesnina took a sizable lead to start off the set. With the need for a reset, Cornet got hold of one and returned fire to her best potential. The Frenchwoman attacked the level back with the Russian at four all giving the crowd plenty of action on court. It was there that Cornet overtook her opponent and ran away with the set winning 6-4 sending the match to its distance.
It remained a tight race to the finish with Cornet trying to the edge over Vesnina while the same mission played out across court. The pace remained dead even all the way to the end where it was the Frenchwoman who had to answer in order to save the set. She pushed the Russian into a thrilling tiebreaker that saw its conclusion come over the horizon. Cornet edged Vesnina on points in the break to win the set 5-3. The match took 2 hours and 37 minutes to complete with Cornet getting the best of her opponent.
The victory gives her a fighting chance to make better in the second round taking on American Christina McHale who took down Italian powerhouse Sara Errani. Their second-round match takes place Tuesday afternoon.
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